Habs vs.Sabres: Forty Years? Pfft Edition

Notes on the third:

-Question for indigestive debate for the four days off coming up: Was it unseemly for the Habs to celebrate a Buffalo own goal? Discuss.

-Mike Boone at HI/O asks: Would you trade Rivet for Gorges straight up? Answer: I would not trade Gorges with a fish. I would not trade him on a dish. I would not, could not trade him in a car, in a bar, you go too far.

-Playoff Gill is really good. Regular season Gill is a soft-as-a-lullaby liability a LOT.

-I don't know who was supposed to have coverage on the Buffalo goal, but they blew it like a hard nor'easter.

-Uh oh...Ruff's got the white board out on the timeout. Martin, as usual, is making up haikus in his head.

-Hey! Did I just hear Pierre Houde's first "oy-yoi-yoi" of the season? Can I make a wish now?

-Scrum at the end of the game. Gionta: "Really? You wanna go?" Gill: "Left foot back, side, side...come on, feel the rhythm."

-Price played another great game. Keep it going, kid.

-Big two points. Habs need two more tomorrow.


Notes on the second:

-I can't decide whether Eller looks like the adopted Staal or the product of Mikko Koivu and The Traitor's mingled petrie-dish DNA. Whichever, he's going to be a really good NHLer.

-The wretched donkey goal on Miller went to Picard. Ryan O'Byrne is sharpening razor blades in the pressbox.

-One big difference between This Year Price and Last Year Price: He actually seems to know where the hell the puck is when it's at his feet.

-I think Martin should make a deal with the team that he'll burn a tie every time they take a shot instead of pass it in the offensive zone.

-Spacek and Price have a future on the Synchronized Goalie team in Sochi. It's just an exhibition sport for now, but you never know...

-Pleks finds the seams better than a Saville Row tailor.

-Wish I had a home breathalyzer so I could check before I write this, but Kostitsyn is playing better D than Cammalleri. So is Pouliot.

-Habs breakout seems a bit more efficient than last year. Maybe familiarity breeds better passing?

-Gotta love a goal that comes with sound effects, and you gotta love Josh Gorges scoring it.

-Poor Spacek. He finds the net like Frobisher found the Northwest Passage.

-Two goal lead with twenty to go...if Martin had been on Happy Days, he'd say "Sit on it!"


Notes on the first:

-What a bleh ceremony in Buffalo. The announcer pronounced "Perreault" like Gionta would. Forty years without a Cup. Whatever. Drop the puck.

-Gionta's due. And if he scores one, he'll get another.

-Sometimes Gill looks like he's made out of Mecchano and all his joints are screwed together.

-Subban's discovering that the road out of the doghouse is paved with blocked shots and broken-up 2-on-1s. And Pouliot is learning the road into it is littered with the minor-league corpses of those who took dumbass o-zone penalties.

-Gomez is about as aggressive as a constipated octopus. He's chasing the puck half-heartedly and circling aimlessly when he doesn't have it. Non hockey-watching spouse says, "I just want him to start earning his money." I had to explain Gomez would have to play until the second coming for that to happen.

-Did anyone in the league send the refs that "define a blindside hit" video they sent out to the players? Hammer's going to ask during the intermission.

-Cammalleri looks like an old lady whose hearing aid batteries are worn down and he keeps having to ask "What?!"

-Wild end-to-end sequence to finish a pretty decent period. I fear one of those typical close Buffalo games, though, in which the Habs get stoned by Miller and they win 1-0.